Raising the temp at mash-out

I use a picnic cooler with slotted drain pipes in the bottom as a MLT. In reading David Miller's book he states that the temperature of the mash should be raised to 168 degrees F at mash-out to stop all further enzymztic activity, that he sees this as a necessary step, and that there is no good way to do that in a picnic cooler.

I typically mash 9 or 10 pounds of grain, and I have tried in the past to raise the temperature of the goods in the cooler by adding a quantity of near-boiling water. Now, I don't want to get us into high-tech energy equations here, but it seemed to me that I could add it until the cows came home and only get a few degrees of temperature rise, all the while thinning my mash hopelessly. I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't have room in the cooler for enough boiling water to get me to 168.

Thoughts??

Do you batch sparge or fly?

If you batch sparge, the need for a mashout is lessened, since you'll be putting the kettle on the boil very soon after the mash is over (and thereby denaturing the enzymes). It's more of an issue for fly sparging, where the wort is going to remain at sac rest temps (or thereabouts) for another hour while the grain bed is rinsed.

For batch sparging, what I'll do is infuse as much as I can with water that's a bit hotter than my strike water was (around 170°-175°), as the other benefit besides stopping enzymatic activity is making the wort a bit less viscous so that it drains better.

I mash-out in a 7-gallon picnic cooler with 4 to 6 quarts of boiling water (depending on the recipe) which raises my mash temp up to 167-168 every time.

How much boiling water are you adding?

Are you mashing really low, like 148? My normal mash temp is 153-155 or so.

How much water are you mashing with? You might be using too much. I mash-in with 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. This leaves me with enough space in the cooler for mash-out.

I did a mash out in my last batch (I batch sparge) but I use a 10 gallon cooler for my MLT. Even so, I filled that cooler just about to the top! I mashed in (14.5 pounds of grain) with just over 18 quarts of water. My mash out was 10 quarts of water at 198 degrees, and it did bring my grain bed temperature up from 154 to 168.

If I don't do a mash out, I just start my first runnings on to boil while I'm doing the batch sparge, just like the_Bird said.

I really don't see the need for a mash out. The whole enzymztic activity thing is debateable. From what I've read it takes considerable time at those temps to halt

Bellybuster said:

I really don't see the need for a mash out. The whole enzymztic activity thing is debateable. From what I've read it takes considerable time at those temps to halt

Click to expand...

A mash-out seems to help increase efficiency by 5-10% for batch spargers. That seems to be the biggest benefit of doing one.

I just drain the grainbed after mash, then add my first batch sparge water at about 180-185 F, and stir in REALLY well. This brings the mash up to about 168-70 for that sparge and any subsequent ones.

I agree with the bird though, for batch sparging, a mashout is not the endall.

Hmmmmmm I can't say I've ever seen an increase or decrease in efficiency with or without mashout.
My sparge water is around 180 for the sole reason that I "believe" it collects the remaining sugars better than cooler water will and it brings you that much closer to boiling

just for interest, I have tried batch sparge with mashing temp water and saw no decrease in efficiency...your mileage may vary of course

In my testing, you can increase efficiency by EITHER doing a mashout to raise sugar solubility or skip it and go with hot sparge infusions. In both cases you're raising the grainbed to about 168. The efficiency difference between the two is really negligable.

gkeusch said:

In reading David Miller's book he states that the temperature of the mash should be raised to 168 degrees F at mash-out to stop all further enzymztic activity, that he sees this as a necessary step, and that there is no good way to do that in a picnic cooler.

Click to expand...

I think what Miller really meant was that you can't direct-fire a cooler mash tun on a burner to perform a mash out. There are actually lots of ways to do a step infusion or mash out, and you will find plenty of examples here on HBT. Hot water infusions are the most common. Other less common, but equally effective methods are:
- use a pump and recirc you mash liquid through a heat exchanger (aka HERMS setup)
- heat your mash tun with an electric element
- heat your mash with steam injection (my fav, see my sig)

And one more.... the quasi-decoction method. Drain the runnings, heat to 180, return to grain. PITA if you ask me, but while we're discussing methods...

I have tried a mash-out several times with boiling water, but I haven't noticed an efficiency difference. I think that good stirring, temperature stability, and crush are far more important. I also don't understand why you need to stop the enzyme activity. Isn't that what you are encouraging during the mash?

gkeusch said:

I use a picnic cooler with slotted drain pipes in the bottom as a MLT. Thoughts??

Click to expand...

As mentioned above, if you have a manifold of this nature, steam heating is a very attractive option. I use steam for mash out and it works fantastic.

Mash-out is not so much about denaturing the enzymes as it is for reducing the wort viscosity and thus aids lautering. I doubt that it can give you a 5-10% efficiency increase in batch sparging.

I consider it a good but not necessary practice. You can raise the temp through hot a water infusion or a decoction. The addition of more water helps you with batch sparging, where you want to aim for running off the same volume for each sparge batch. I tend to use decoctions and keep them thin so I don't have to attend (stir) them to much. But that is just me.

Kai

I just sparge with near boiling water